A little incident
happened along with these drivers, one of the hog
drivers was very fond of coffee and would drink
some 8 or 10 cups of coffee at one meal. The next
year the advance man would go ahead as usual to
find a place to stay overnight. He tried at a
farmhouse where they had stopped the year before
and asked if they could stay that night, as they
had a large bunch of hogs. The lady of the house
asked if they had the big coffee drinker with
them, if they did, she did not have coffee enough
in the house. So he assured her that the coffee
drinker was not with them this time. Sometimes
they would have to wait some days in St Louis
before they could get them butchered as that was
their custom to weigh these hogs after butchering
- weigh them dressed.
Hog cholera was not know
in those days. They told a little story on a
preacher who lived close to the timber and let
his hogs run and they would get nice and fat on
mast and then he would kill enough of them to
supply his family a whole year. A party reported
that the preacher stole his hogs for family use.
The preacher heard of it and sued the accuser for
defamation of character. After a hard fought
legal battle by the preacher's attorney, Judge
Robbins of Springfield said the preacher proved
that he had been killing his own hogs all the
time. Several years before he had put some brood
sows on Brushey Branch or they had gotten away,
they stayed together and multiplied and the
preacher never killed near all the hogs that
really belonged to him. The verdict was one cent
damage to his character.
The question was asked
quite frequently why did not those pioneers make
more money with land and corn so cheap and stock
fattened so easily, which was answered very
readily by saying that the more land a man had at
that time the worse off he was. A man might own a
thousand acres and be able to cultivate but one
hundred acres, and in this case he had to pay
taxes on nine hundred acres he could not use.
Although many hogs were raised driving them to St
Louis was tedious and expensive process. It took
about two weeks to drive the hogs through to
market. When you got to St Louis, if the weather
was warm, you might have to wait two weeks for
cooler weather so as to kill them, as they would
be weighed after being fully dressed. There was
no ten cent corn in St Louis to feed these hogs
on, as it was very high and board was not to be
had for a song at St Louis hotels.
The neighbors cooperated
and joined to drive their hogs to market, each
man paying his share of the total expense in
proportion to the number of hogs he had in the
bunch. And in this way, it became possible to
make a little money on hogs, one reason that the
early settlers did not get rich is that they came
about 20 years too soon. They had to wait about
that long for transportation. Until the Illinois
Central Railroad was built and then everything
changed with the railroad came improved farm
machinery and then the colony began to boom.
The first birth in the
Colony was Julia Sanders, daughter of Mr. and
Mrs. Nicholas Sanders. Soon after a daughter was
born to Thos Skiff and his wife. The first death
in the colony was the oldest daughter of Mr. and
Mrs. Nicholas Sanders, carried away by measles
that was contracted while she was on her way from
CT. The first marriage was that of Harriet
W Chapman, daughter of Thos P
Chapman to James S Grant, the ceremony being
performed on March 4, 1840.
The bread question was a
great proposition as their nearest grist mill was
20 miles away, called the Bob Archer water mill.
Corn was about the only available grain and it
was all right in late summer or early fall, but
later the rains came and not having any roads or
bridges it made it very difficult to go to the
mill as streams were swollen. In the fall, as
early as it would do, they would go into the
fields and gather a few bushels of corn, dry it
so as to shell and the whole family would get at
the shelling of the corn preparatory for the
mill. Soon two neighbors would hitch up their
three yoke of oxen and go to the water mill. All
the neighbors would put in their grain to have it
ground to last all winter. It would take some
five or seven days to complete the round trip to
the mill, each family would receive his grist,
then they would sift all the meal and salt it a
little so as to keep it sweet until used up.
Going to the mill at
such a long distance was a very important item of
farm life. They met and decided they must have a
mill. In these early days help was very scarce.
As to mechanics, they were hard to find. My
father, WS Peabody, was the chief contractor and
builder for the colony and he had to get the best
help he could secure. I heard WS Peabody tell of
hiring a man who was very hand with tools to help
him in his carpentering shop and when not
building, put him to work on the farm, he paid
him $18.00 for one months work and sold two four
year old steers at $9.00 each to pay him one
month. Good milk cows with a young calf at her
side could be bought for $6.00. The colonists
soon began raising sheep, the women folk could
spin and weave. They would take the wool to
Springfield and have it made into rolls of
one-half inch through, about two feet long. Then
the women would take these rolls and spin them
into yarn to knit socks and stockings for
themselves.
Then they began to raise
flax thackle put it into threads and with their
cotton warp would weave on their looms into cloth
to make all their dresses and men's clothes. They
were all made by hand, in this way they saved
many a dollar which they would not have saved if
they had bought ready-made clothes. The women
were great workers as well as the men there were
no lazy ones among the colonists. They were all
good and industrious people. When one neighbor
got behind with his work on account of sickness,
all the neighbors would go to this place and do
all his work up in one day.
They were very kind and
sociable to each other. They did all of their own
doctoring with herbs and poultices, they seemed
to be quite successful. Taylorville was the first
nearby town and that was twelve miles away. The
territory was laid off in large counties.
Sangamon County included all of Sangamon,
Montgomery, Morgan, Menard and Macon, also a part
of Christian. Afterwards the counties were made
smaller and Christian Co was for having a county
seat, three places were striving for it. One was
Stonington, where the colony was located.
Allerton some three miles northeast of
Taylorville, on the farm that Josiah Hall owns
and the present county seat of Taylorville. A man
by the name of Taylor owned eighty acres and he
captured the town and the tract was laid off in
town lots, the original town 28 blocks and four
and one half blocks and named Taylorville after
this man Taylor who won the county seat.
After it was
incorporated, one man was elected assessor, and
he assessed the whole county without a single
deputy. His name was Sanford Petty. He held the
office for many years. He was crippled in one
leg. County officers were elected: county Judge,
County Clerk, sheriff, Representative to the
Legislature. A story was told on three candidates
who were campaigning the county for votes. County
Judge, County Clerk and Representative. As
automobiles were not in use in those days, they
traveled on horseback. They came up to a voter by
the name of Elijah Palmer, each one passed the
time of day, and was very glad to see Uncle
Elijah as he was generally called, and began
soliciting him for a vote, stating each office
they wished to run for, and uncle Elijah was
rather slow in his talk. He says to them,
"Where is your bottle?" No sooner than
he had said it, each man pulled out of his pocket
a pint bottle of whiskey and offered it to Uncle
Elijah, and he replied in his long and slow drawn
out words, "That is all I want to know of
you. I wound not vote for one of you." They
discovered they had pulled the bottle on the
wrong man this time.
These candidates
afterwards told the story, which amused them very
much. The man Uncle Elijah Palmer told of seeing
a flock of deer, describing the position of the
flock pointing to the east, west and north. A
party asked Uncle Elijah which one did you shoot
at? "I did not shoot at any particular one,
I just shot at the flock." He was so
excited, he forgot to take aim. Many incidents
happened along in the early days.
A county superintendent
was elected to look after the schools in the
county. There were not so many in the county,
name was Samuel Sisna, he was the first county
Superintendent and it was the custom for the
county superintendent to visit all the schools in
the county at least once a year, and as many
times as he wished. This man went to visit a
school where a young lady was teaching her first
school, and she did not have very good control
over the governing of her pupils. They made quite
considerable noise moving around talking with
each other, and when the opportune time came this
young teacher asked the Supt if he would like to
make a talk to the school, he arose and said,
"I have visited schools all over the
country, and this is the damdest school I have
ever visited." He was a man how liked his
tea very well and he was very well tanked up this
day.
The old Stonington
Baptist Church was organized in October 1837. The
charter members were eleven to wit: BF Chapman
and Nancy his wife, Elvira Peabody, Allen B
Peabody, Elias Peabody, Amos Peabody, Martha A
Chapman, Harvey C Chapman, Nicholas Sanders and
wife Sarah, and Elijah Palmer, all but three of
the charter members were from the Peabody
families. In 1839 there were several more
families of the promised colony from CT, who
brought letters from Stonington Baptist Church to
join the Stonington IL church. They were Deacon
Samuel Peabody and his wife Lucy, Mary Palmer and
three children, Jos H Jessey, and Abbie Palmer,
Samuel W Peabody, Horace Morgan and wife Mercy,
Rev Parris Pray and wife Almira, eleven more to
join the church by letter. These eleven were all
my relation, making nineteen out of 22 members of
the Stonington church.
In October 1842, Rev
Gideaon Perry of Alton IL formerly of North
Stonington CT, and Amos S Dodge of Jerseyville,
IL came to Old Stonington to hold a protracted
meeting. The services were held in the Old Colony
house in which Grandfather Peabody lived. Grandma
Peabody and Aunt Mary Palmer had both died just
previous to the holding of these meetings.
Grandma Peabody lost her eyesight from sickness
several years before coming to Old Stonington.
Aunt Elvira Peabody kept house for Grandfather
Peabody. After the death of his wife, Lucy, Rev
GB Perry, before he commenced his meeting, told
my father, WS Peabody, that he wanted him to go
along Browns Branch , close to where the meeting
was held, and select a nice place to make a pool
for baptizing. My father wanted to know why he
wanted a pool before there was any chance of
using it, he thought it was time enough to get a
pool when there was a prospect to use it. Rev
Perry told my father that he expected to baptize
him in that pool before the meetings closed. My
father thought there was a very poor prospect,
but before the close of the meetings, he did
baptize my father and mother.
The country was very
sparsely settled at this time, and people came a
long distance to attend these meetings. It was no
unusual thing for people to come fifteen and
twenty miles to attend these meetings and stay
with a\the few neighbors in the new neighborhood,
as every one kept open house. They came in large
lumber wagons, some came with ox teams hitched to
a lumber wagon. Vehicles with springs in these
days were not thought of. These meetings resulted
in 24 conversions which was added to the church.
I cannot give all the names, but will as far as I
can. WS Peabody and Sarah his wife, James S Grant
and Harriet his wife, Thos P Chapman, Wm S Frink
and his wife and two daughters Sarah and Lydia,
Thos S Leechman and wife and one daughter,
Alexander Leechman and his wife Harriet, Hester
Alexander and wife and her sister.
The Frinks and
Alexanders lived several miles NW of Taylorville,
some twenty miles west of Old Stonington. The
Leechmans lived three miles SW of Taylorville. John
D Brown and Mary his wife, Mrs. Leonard
Lilly, Rosana Lilly, Sam S Hanner, Leonard Lilly
was the man who run the mill, WS Hammer was
sheriff of Christian Co and was county clerk of
Macon Co, and was also county judge some years
ago and died in Macon Co, Decatur IL. A few more
names I can add. Wm Morton, Cymbal Moore and son,
John NB Chapman. In the spring of 1843, these
baptized members organized a Sunday School with
John D Brown as Supt and he was Supt for more
than 15 years. They hold their Sunday School in
the winter time.
The church was not very
well fixed in finances, and was not able to
support a minister all the time. The members
would make up a little purse and occasionally
give the preacher a donation. They would all turn
in and take all kinds of cooked victuals, meats,
cakes, pies, bread, preserves, jams, jellies, and
set a big table and eat it all up so when the
donation party left the preacher, there was
nothing left for breakfast the next morning.
My uncle Rev Parris Pray
preached to the church a number of years and his
salary was to be $50 per year, but some years he
did not receive all of his salary and he had to
go out and do farm work for all the neighbors. A
little incident happened one time in one of these
meetings, on Sunday morning, there were two men
by the name of John Brown, one a day laborer, and
was know as Brown, the Single Maker, and one of
the members was called upon to lead in prayer,
and he was making splendid prayer, but was quite
interested in the Brown that was not a Christian,
so in his prayer, he prayed for the salvation of
John Brown, not thinking of the other Brown. He
then seemed to think that the members might think
something was wrong with Deacon Brown, and coming
to himself a ways into his prayer, he says,
"I mean John Brown, the Single Maker."
Another little incident
happened when the church was small in number as
well as not having much money, they could not
support a minister all the time, so they were
only supplied with one occasionally by different
ministers. There were two members in the church
by the name of Chapman, one Thos., the other
Tyler. The latter was an ordained preacher, but
as the boy said, he did not practice it, but was
a splendid exhorter and could make fine prayers,
and was quite often called upon to perform this
function, as it was the custom quite often to
lead them in prayer. This Sunday they were to
have a new preacher and Thos Chapman was always
wanted to be first to get acquainted with the new
preacher, and as he only got the names of a few,
as he was late in coming and after finishing his
sermon, he called on Brother Thos chapman to lead
in prayer. He looks round and say "Bro.
Tyler Chapman does our praying"
Thos Chapman was
sometimes a little absent minded, he was a great
man to walk when going to neighbors or church, so
one Sunday he rode a horse to church and when
church was over members came out and Bro Chapman
was very much interested in some of the men as
they were going his way he walked along with
them. He lived a little over a mile from where
they held services and as he reached home, his
wife says "why Mr. Chapman, where is your
horse?" He says, "Pox take it",
which was his by-word. "I have hitched it
down to the school house." So he had to walk
back to get his horse. In the early days, they
had but few fences, and often when stock was out
at large, they sometimes would get into crops.
Thos Chapman had a small patch of corn and Deacon
Peabody's hogs got into his patch a few time,
which made Bro Chapman out of humor. He said to
his wife "Martha, go into the house, I want
to swear." She says, "No, Mr. Chapman,
you must not swear. I will damn Deacon Peabody's
hogs."
In 1843, a committee was
appointed to see after the building of a church.
The committee appointed WS Peabody, SD Brown, WS
Frink, AB Peabody and PS Leechman. Not raising
sufficient funds, it proved to be a failure. In
8163, the building project came up again twenty
years after the first move to build. WS Peabody,
ML Sanders and AB Chapman were appointed to be
the building committee. The first church was
built and dedicated 22 years after the first talk
of building. Many different preachers have been
pastors of this church. The first was one Amos
Dodge pastored in 1843 and died March 19, 1844.
February 1846 Rev Parris Pray was engaged to
preach for them at a salary of $50. In 1848, the
Taylorville Baptist church was organized from
members of the Stonington Baptist church. In
1849, Rev Parris Pray was engaged to preach one
half time at Stonington and one half at
Taylorville for $100 each church paying $50.
In 1851, Rev BF Chapman
was chosen to preach at Stonington Church. In
1856, Rev BB Bunnelle was the preacher for one
year. In 1857, Rev Frederick Wiley was with them
till April 1861, when Rev EP Parker was their
next preacher. The next one was Rev Coon who
preached for a time. Then came Rev AM Cockran. He
preached until 1867, then Rev SM Wells was their
preacher until 1869, when JM Maxwell was engaged
one year. In February 1870 the Assumption Baptist
church was organized from members of the Old
Stonington Baptist Church. April 1870 Rev GA
Pesse was engaged to be pastor of the Stonington
Church.
The first school was
taught in a private house one room 14 X 16. The
school was small as there were only a few
children, only about 8 of school age. Some of
these children were taught at home by their
parents. The first school house was built in the
summer of 1850. The territory of the school
district took in something over three miles
square. Chas Burkick was the first
teacher who taught in the new school house. WS
Peabody was one of the first directors in the
district, he was elected in 1850 and held the
place until 1870, when his son WE Peabody was
elected to take his place and he held it until
1895, so father and son were directors in the
district 45 years.
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